


Matchmaker

by mak5258



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mak5258/pseuds/mak5258
Summary: A fluffy bit of fluff. Minerva takes a stab at playing matchmaker.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 7
Kudos: 151





	Matchmaker

Minerva watched the two youngest members of faculty walk the grounds. It was late afternoon on a Hogsmeade weekend, and she’d sent the pair of them off ostensibly to check for stragglers. With bad grace, they’d gone.

The two of them were too blind to see it. Of course they were.

Hermione had joined the staff nearly a decade ago, and at first they’d just barely been polite to each other. As her deputy, Severus had been part of the hiring process, but he’d done all he could to squirm out of things; he hadn’t even participated in her interview, and that was nearly unprecedented for him.

Things had changed. Even Trelawney had commented more than once that the pair seemed to get on rather well.

It was absurdly frustrating. For two very clever people, they _refused_ to see what was right in front of them.

Minerva had done her research, just to be sure. A few questions in the staff room, an extra line or so in her letters to the Potters and the Weasleys, a passing word to Draco when she happened to bump into them at the Ministry.

Neither of them were seeing anybody; it was confirmed on all fronts. In fact, almost all of their friends were concerned about them spending so much time at the school. They both spent their summers at the castle, but that wasn’t unusual, most teachers made the castle their home year-round—the unusual part was that neither of them ventured away for more than a short stretch of time.

Something had to be done. They were perfect for each other, that much had been obvious since before Hermione had even joined the staff. And if they were single and not making any attempts to forge new relationships for themselves, she was going to give them a push. The needed it. it would do them both a world of good.

She’d started off small, testing the waters. Assigning them to the same rotations for hallway patrols and Hogsmeade visits. “Accidentally” sending them both to the apothecary to pick up the school’s order.

Things had gone well. They’d appeared friendly with one another. In fact, they’d bumped along quite nicely even when she’d set them the last shift supervising last February’s Valentine’s dance. And when she’d been deliberately late to that meeting with the Board of Governors, Hermione had buoyed Severus’s mood well enough that dear Governor Titus hadn’t even been close to tears (as had happened the last time she’d been late).

So far as a ham-handed matchmaking attempt went, she didn’t think she was doing half bad.

* * *

Minerva watched them at the conclusion of the following week’s staff meeting. Severus had held the door open for Hermione when they’d entered, but he’d also held it for Hooch and Poppy as the four of them had made their way to the meeting together. They’d sat next to each other at the table through the whole meeting, but that was hardly new or unusual.

It was very frustrating, really. They’d been friends before she’d started trying to get them together, so it was often difficult to tell if her efforts were making a difference.

* * *

Minerva decided that she needed a catalyst. Something, some inciting-incident to get things moving. To make them _see_ each other and the potential that was there between them.

It was just a matter of what, exactly, would work.

She sat back in her chair, pulling out her calendar to see if any upcoming school events could be twisted into an enticement for the pair of them. Perhaps the Halloween Feast? Or would it be better to wait until the students were away and come up with something over the holidays?

A knock on the door interrupted her.

“Come.”

“Good evening, Headmistress,” Hermione said. Minerva reflexively scrambled to hide what she’d been doing, as though looking at her own calendar was somehow incriminating. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting? I can come back later.”

“No, no, it’s fine, dear,” Minerva said, striving for some measure of decorum. She waved at the chairs in front of her desk, offering the younger witch a seat. “I’m afraid you caught me drowsing is all.”

Hermione smiled gently and sat. Minerva couldn’t help but notice that her hands immediately clasped in her lap; she was fidgeting with a cuticle. She hadn’t seen that particular stress response in years.

“Is everything alright?” Minerva asked.

“Oh, yes,” Hermione said. She smiled—beamed, actually—but them went back to fidgeting.

“You’re resigning your post, aren’t you?” Minerva said, her heart sinking. It had only been a matter of time until Hermione moved on, of course. She was still the brightest witch of her age, much sought-after even after she’d cloistered herself away at the school. Minerva had hoped to get a few more years out of her before the incentives packages drew her away, though. She’d hoped to have Hermione and Severus well sorted before that.

“What?” Hermione asked, eyes wide with surprise. “No, of course not.”

“Are you sure?” Minerva looked at the hands, still folded and fidgety. Hermione blushed. “I can’t think of anything else you’d have to say to me that would make you this nervous.”

Hermione smiled and pressed her hands palms-down on her thighs (probably to stop herself from fidgeting) before speaking.

“I’ve never had this conversation before, is all,” Hermione said. “It’s not as though it’s unprecedented or anything, but we’ve kept things so private for such a long time that I find myself quite nervous.”

“Well, spit it out,” Minerva said, half sure what Hermione was going to say next. It hadn’t been expected at all, particularly after all that careful prying, but…

“I’m pregnant,” Hermione said, smiling broadly then biting her lip nervously.

“Congratulations, my dear,” Minerva said honestly. Her mind was racing, though—who might the father be? She’d said they’d been keeping things private for a stretch of time. How long a stretch?

Her first thought was Neville because they’d been at school together, but he’d married Hannah Abbott and the pair of them were quite thoroughly and obviously besotted with one another.

Dane Judge, the Potions teacher, was a possibility only in that he’d be physically capable of the act. Not only did the pair of them not get along spectacularly well, but he preferred to spend his private time with wizards.

There was the new librarian, Rasmus Black, but he was closer to Minerva’s age. And he’d only begun at Hogwarts in the fall, taking over for dear Irma Pince.

Maybe somebody from the village? She’d always seemed to get on rather well with the owner of the bookshop. The Weasleys had bought out Zonko’s two years ago, and Ron had been running the Hogsmeade Wheezes since; the pair of them had been close in school, but they’d never seemed interested to take up again after the war...

“Thank you,” Hermione said, smiling again. In her lap, her hands drew together and she began to pick at her cuticle once more. “You’re the first person outside the family we’ve told, actually. My parents, his mother, and now you. I suppose I’ll need to be sure Poppy knows soon, too.”

“If you’re comfortable with Poppy, yes,” Minerva said. “I’ve heard travel by Floo is no picnic when pregnant, so that would make her more convenient than somebody from St. Mungo’s. Though if you can convince your healer to pay a house call, I’d be perfectly willing to open the Floo in your sitting room to the hospital.”

“No, I think I’d prefer Poppy, actually,” Hermione said.

“How far along?” Minerva asked. It was both a question because she was curious and because she needed to know as Hermione’s boss; she’d have to find a temporary Charms teacher.

“Three months,” Hermione said. “I’m due at the end of March.”

“Would you want to stop teaching after the New Year? Or keep going through February?” Minerva asked, pulling out her calendar again and flipping through. There was a good chance, if she asked Filius with enough notice, he’d come back for the spring term.

“I was hoping, if you could find somebody to cover my classes, to stop at the holiday break. It’s twins, you see, and the healers say there’s potential they’ll want me on bed-rest toward the end of the pregnancy.”

“Twins due in the vicinity of April Fool’s Day? Watch yourself there, Professor Granger,” Minerva said. They shared a grin.

“Fred and George would be delighted, I’m sure,” Hermione said. She’d stopped fidgeting for the moment.

“Hermione, may I ask,” Minerva said, setting aside her calendar, hesitating. “It’s none of my business, but may I ask who the father is?”

“Oh, actually that _is_ your business,” Hermione said. She was surprised when the younger witch blushed. “He’ll be needing his classes covered, too, you see. Not directly after New Year’s, of course, but when it gets closer to my time.”

“His classes covered?”

Minerva’s mind began to race again: _Could_ it be Severus? It had to be.

“Oh. Well.” Hermione was fidgeting again. “It’s Severus.”

“Severus!” Minerva couldn’t help it; she thumped her hand triumphantly on her desk. “Do you know, I’ve been trying to get the pair of you together for _two years_?”

“Yes,” Hermione said sheepishly. “We had noticed that.”

“Why didn’t you say something!”

“Well, like I said, we were keeping things private.” Hermione blushed again. “And, honestly, it was nice to have all those excuses made for us to spend time together.”

Minerva chuckled.

“He didn’t want me to come to work at the castle,” Hermione said, speaking more to her lap than anything else. “The contracts don’t prohibit anything, of course. But they require discretion.”

“Of course,” Minerva said. “There _have_ been plenty of couples on staff, even children raised in the castle, you know.”

“That’s what I told him,” Hermione said, rolling her eyes.


End file.
